The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-06-18
Compiled for The Arkdasaw Traueter. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

| - hotter as its spots grow fewer.
 The water in an old English we'll, 207 feet deep, was carefully observed last year, and shown to vary only 1.9 degrees in temperature during the year.
 A curious local anesthetic of the Chinese is in the form of hard, wax like tablets. It seems to owe it's be- numbing property to secretion from the skin of frogs.
 By careful experiments, M. Bloch has determined that it takes 1-72 of a second longer to hear sound than to see sight, and 1-21 of second longer to feel touch than to see a sight.
 A Russian physicist finds that, con- trary to general belief, the strength and property of elongation are in- creased by low temperature in iron and steel, the force of cohesion being intensified by contraction.
 Sudden changes in atmospheric pressure at Berlin seem to have been connected with the Sonora earthquake. It will be remembered that the Kra- katoa eruption produced an air-wav that passed several times around the earth.
 A severe electric shock was felt by telegraph operator of Nice during the earthquake of February B. A study of the phenomenon has convinced NJ. Onimus that earthquake movements are normally accompanied by strong electric currents.
 In late experiments a red-hot wire was made to serve as telephone trans hitter. A fine platinum wire, several inches long, was placed in a circuit with charged accumulator, an induc- tion coil and receiving telephone: and when the current had heated the wire, words spoken to the latter were audible ill the telephone.
 THE DANGERS IN MoULD.-In the opinion of Dr. M. w. Taylor, of the London Archaeological Society, some common kinds of mould may give rise to diphtheria. He gives in- stances in which serious outbreaks have been traced to the mould devel- oped on the wet plaster of leaky walls, while old tleeces of wool and mouldy skins appear also to be sources of diph- theric infection.
 AN4ESTHETIC WARFARE.-Ah humane German chemist has hit upon an idea which, if adopted, would be worth a dozen new explosives. He makes a bullet so brittle that it breaks when it strikes, and, powerful an@sthetic being enclosed, that renders instantly and completely insensible any persons that may be wounded by it. The in- sensibility lasts at least twelve hours, during which time the bodies may be comfortably removed to a hospital, with a great reduction of suffering on the battle- field. Such, at least, is what is claimed.
 SKIN HEAT.-Though the interior of the body retains quite constant heat of 98 to 100 degrees, the temper ature of the skin varies considerably in different parts. Prof. kunkel. at Wurzburg, has just found that in the face in adult men it ranges from S5 to to 89 degrees. The skin of the more exposed parts of the body, the nose and the ears, shows lower tempera- ture, seldom exceeding 75 degrees, and even descending to 71.5. The highest surface temperature appears in men in the full vigor of life, and the remark able fact is observed that the skin of children is cooler than that of adults being from v to S4 degrees.
 APowERFUL BATTERY. The largest secondary battery yet constructed is probably that in the basement of the city hall of Paris. It includes 165 gigantic elements, ten inches in diam eter and thirty-one inches in height, and it yields power of 100 horses. It weighs eleven tons, and contains 975 gallons of liquid. Its purpose is to regulate the 2,20O Edison lamps that light the hall of Fetes and the adjacent salons, the contract requiring that the battery shall keep up the light from twenty to thirty minutes in case of accidental stoppage of the machines. The current producing machines for this part of the illumin- ation alone are three large Gramme dynamos and four steam engines, of a total power of 130 horses.
 STELLAR INFLUENCE ON CLIMATE.-I In paper to the Liverpool Astronom- ical Society, MT. W. H. s. Monck sug- gested lately that the puzzling climatic variations recorded by the rocks may have been produced by the near ap- proach to the earth of intensely hot stars. This may have been due to the travelling of the star itself, or to the motion of the solar system in space. Moving with the earth's own rate, a celestial body would traverse in 5O,-